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Cherilyn Amalgamator
Human female, born 1 Su'gin, LY 866, in Triscot. Restaurateur and don of LandOrder's Triscot branch. Cherilyn and her older sister, Shiri, were the daughters of cooks who had always aspired to become chefs, and open their own restaurant. This, however, did not happen until 872, when Shiri was 12 years old, and Cherilyn was 6. It was around that time that Shiri first became a spirit-talker, and she learned from one of her new spirit friends that fifteen years ago, a Terran dish called "pizza" had been introduced in the village of Ristar, and in the years since then had become increasingly popular in other villages, as well. Shiri shared this knowledge with her parents, who began experimenting with recipes of their own for making pizza, and before long, opened their own pizzeria. It quickly became very successful. But eight years later, in 880, a pizza chef named Simon moved with his wife and son, from Ristar to Triscot. Simon came from the clan which had first started making pizzas, in 857; the clan owned a chain of pizzerias in several villages. Simon was expecting to open the first pizzeria in Triscot, which his clan saw as a major potential new market. He was dismayed to find the village already had a successful pizzeria, but he believed he could attract customers who would no doubt be eager to taste authentic Ristarian pizza. He was right, of course, and this led to a bitter rivalry between his pizzeria and that of Cherilyn's family. However, Cherilyn (now 14 years old) and Shiri (now 20) were more open-minded than their parents, and believed there was no reason the two pizzerias couldn't coexist. In particular, Cherilyn had always felt that people should try to get along, and be friends. As it happened, Cherilyn had joined a local gang called the Buccaneers the previous year, when she was 13. Soon after Simon moved to Triscot, his son, Jimi (who was 17 at the time), also joined the Buccaneers. He'd been a member of a similar gang in Ristar, and wasn't happy about his parents having forced him to move away from his friends. He also had no desire to enter the family business. And while it was common for people around his age to leave gangs, having grown too old for such shenanigans, he was in a rebellious frame of mind. Cherilyn was always eager to befriend anyone in the gang, and soon became close to Jimi. She learned that he himself had been close to a cousin of his who was a spirit-talker (there were several of them in the clan, including his uncle- the father of this particular cousin- who had been the first person to make pizza on The Land). This, along with numerous other facts she learned about Jimi, soon led Cherilyn to realize he'd be a perfect match for her sister, and introduced the two of them. Within a couple of years, Shiri and Jimi had fallen in love, and married. This union led to the end of the rivalry between their families' businesses, as both sets of parents realized that, as Cherilyn and Shiri had known all along, there were plenty of customers to go around. Over the years, however many friends Cherilyn might have, her best friend was always her sister. Shiri shared knowledge with her about many things from Earth, including music, food, fashion, and other cultural elements. It is known by many of those who are close to either of the sisters that they are both fans of a musical group called [[The Really Far East|The Really Far East]], whose members also include at least one spirit-talker, and who were themselves inspired by musical genres from different Terran cultures. (The sisters were introduced to the band's music by Jimi, who'd already been a fan, since the band originated in Ristar; or so it is generally believed.) Some of the same cultures that inspired the band also inspired Cherilyn to later open her own tea shop, the Jasmine Dragon. (Jasmine tea is a variety of sencha which had only been made on the Land since around 853, following the discovery of oddberries on Ristar, which coincidentally was also what inspired the introduction of pizza.) The servers who work in the Jasmine Dragon costume themselves as geisha, traditional female entertainers from a Terran country called Nihon, and the establishment is decorated based on descriptions provided by one of Shiri's spirit friends of tea shops from Nihon. There is, therefore, some question of cultural appropriation, though Cherilyn herself has always sworn she has a deep appreciation for the culture, and makes every effort to avoid stereotypes (though she admits she has no idea what stereotypes might even exist on Earth, regarding the people or culture of Nihon). Jimi left the Buccaneers in 883, around the time he married Shiri. He was 20 years old at the time, and the second-oldest member of the gang. The oldest member was the leader, Alphonse, who was 22. He had been 18 in 879, when he took over the gang, around the time Cherilyn joined (at age 13). He took Jimi's departure as a reminder that he himself was getting too old for this lifestyle, and quit, himself. Now, in 883, Cherilyn was 17, and among the oldest members of the gang, though perhaps not quite the oldest, even after Jimi and Alphonse quit. However, upon Alphonse's departure, Cherilyn was the one who had been a member of the gang longer than any other current members. (Regardless of the age at which people joined, most tended not to stick around more than two or three years, and many quit even sooner than that. Cherilyn had been in the Buccaneers for four years.) So, she was voted new leader. While she had no intention of making a career of it, she had no particular plans for what she would do about a real job. Besides which, she couldn't bear the thought of quitting, as she always saw her fellow gangsters as good friends, even if many of them came and went over the years. Even once she opened the Jasmine Dragon in 891, at age 25 (after eight years as leader of the Buccaneers), she spent as much of her free time as she could hanging out with her gang. She no longer took an active part in gang activities, and in fact the Buccaneers had become more of a youth club than a gang. By this point, Cherilyn had managed to attract virtually all the young gangsters from other gangs to the Buccaneers, leading to a very relaxed atmosphere in the village (at least as far as the local police were concerned). Another eight years passed, and while many of Triscot's youth considered themselves members of the Buccaneers, few of them really thought of themselves as gangsters. The name of the group had become more of a tradition than anything else. And while they occasionally engaged in the old game of "playing pirates," they did little if any plundering. More time was spent hanging out in the Jasmine Dragon, drinking tea or nihonshu, playing card games, and generally having harmless fun and fellowship. However, in 899, Shiri (who was now a vice-bishop) talked to Cherilyn about a most unexpected matter. She had learned at that year's Pilgrimage that The Order had secret plans, which included encouraging gangs in various villages to increase their illegal activities, and to form inter-village alliances. The reason for this was to make the public realize the need for greater cooperation between police departments of different villages. This led, later the same year, to the establishment of InterVil. The ultimate goal would not be achieved until several years later, as InterVil was but one step toward that goal, which was the establishment of the Second Order. While Cherilyn was somewhat reluctant to encourage the kids who looked up to her to turn to lives of serious crime, she did appreciate the goal of uniting the villages of the Land, as she herself had always favored the idea of bringing people together. Not too long after this plan was revealed by her sister, Cherilyn was contacted by Capp, the head of his own gang in Kimrin. He had been a member of the Buccaneers until 879, when his family moved north to help settle the new village. In fact, he had only left Triscot a few months after Cherilyn had just joined the Buccaneers as a young girl, and she actually remembered having looked up to him, at the time. When he explained his reasoning behind having taken over his gang in Kimrin, she admired his motives, and agreed to join him. She had also heard of people from other villages, Don of Plist and Roger of First Village, who were the heads of their own gangs. She suggested contacting the two of them. And so, Capp, Cherilyn, Don, and Roger (who collectively came to be known as the "Big Four") became the original founding members of LandOrder. While she perhaps could have become first in line of succession as head of LandOrder, should Capp retire or die, she chose instead to leave that position to Don. However, she is generally considered second in line, while Roger is third (which makes him the fourth most important person in the gang). In 904, when the surname law was passed, Cherilyn chose the name "Amalgamator" for herself, because of her lifelong efforts to bring people together. This referred to uniting Shiri and Jimi, and thereby their respective families; and to uniting the various gangs in Triscot within the Buccaneers; and to uniting LandOrder itself. It has also been suggested that it could refer to uniting different Terran cultures on the menu at the Jasmine Dragon, even if the foods and drinks were mostly based on the culture of Nihon. It was also similar to the meshing of Middle Eastern and Far Eastern music by the Really Far East. Later in 904, when Nicole Kriek started a branch of InterGang in Triscot, Cherilyn made it clear to her that she had little interest in serious competition between their gangs, preferring to keep crime to a minimum. While Nicole was more resentful of society, and therefore more inclined toward criminal activity, she also respected Cherilyn as a fellow-businessperson. They never became friends, and indeed there have been instances where the rivalry between their respective gangs has caused some clashes, but for the most part they both try to refrain from serious conflict. In 912, LandOrder became temporarily involved with a group called The Chaos, and it was Cherilyn's department of Sorreters who took the lead in setting up a bittrickle network for use by the Chaos. This network would soon be expanded upon by LandOrder's other branches. And after the gang dissolved its relationship with the Chaos, LandOrder assumed control of the network for its own purposes. It should be noted that, while she had agreed with the goals of the Coming, and had in fact grown to enjoy the more elaborate nature of leading her gang in the years since then, she had never appreciated being used as a pawn by the Order. And she also was saddened to see that, in spite of bringing the world together, the Second Order had caused more suffering than she'd expected. She was therefore happy to join with the Chaos in their attempts to repair some of the damage done by the Order, even while retaining the improvements it had made to the world. (It should also be noted that in spite of siding with Protestants at this time, she herself remains orthodox, on a strictly religious level, as does her sister, who had become the Order's bishop of Triscot in 902.) Trivia Cherilyn's birthday falls on "Synch Day" (see Holidays of the Land). It has often been remarked (by friends, family, and acquaintances) that Cherilyn's penchant for "synchronizing" people is therefore somewhat ironic, to which she generally responds, "I don't think that's quite what 'irony' means, dear." Category:People